Seto Kaiba

I'm assuming you mean Jordan Weisman, the founder of both FASA Interactive and Smith & Tinker, the latter of which currently has the video game rights to MechWarrior? Unfortunately, the hypothetical scenario you're posing is an impossible one. Since video games are technically merchandise, not derivative works, neither Big West nor Studio Nue would be able to authorize the use of the destroid designs from the original series in the forthcoming MechWarrior game. In exchange for their assistance animating the Super Dimension Fortress Macross TV series, Tatsunoko Productions received the exclusive right to distribute the series and produce merchandise based on it outside of Japan, and later licensed those rights to Harmony Gold USA. Because of that, the only party who can give Smith & Tinker permission to use the destroid designs from the original Macross series in MechWarrior games (assuming those games are sold outside of Japan) is Harmony Gold. Big West and Studio Nue can't do it because they'd be Tatsunoko's (and therefore, Harmony Gold's) rights if they did, which would almost certainly culminate in a lawsuit. Now if we were talking a Battletech or MechWarrior movie or TV series... then the situation is reversed, as only Big West/Studio Nue can authorize the use of those designs in motion pictures, and Tatsunoko and Harmony Gold can only sit on their hands and gripe loudly about it.

Nah, that would actually require licensing royalties... they'll just do what they always do, and remix the same old music.

Not quite... Harmony Gold can't use the intellectual property (incl. character and mecha designs) of the Super Dimension Fortress Macross TV series in derivative works... namely animated or live-action TV and movies. They CAN use those designs in merchandise, because they have the "rest-of-world" merchandising rights to the series through Tatsunoko Productions. Because of the way the law is written, things like narrative forms like comic books, video games, and novels are all technically merchandise, and thus Harmony Gold can use the Macross designs in those.

Where's that from?

Actually, it's more like: "None of these people can even produce a weak imitation of Haruhiko Mikimoto's style... and that makes them even more pathetic than AnimeFriend and StarPro."

Y'know, on second thought, Minmei would probably have been a lot more tolerable as a can of soda made from slug secretions than what the Waltrips made her into. It was disturbing enough seeing the character with DD's, but having Edwards shouting about her promiscuity and how bad she was in bed while trying to murder Kyle/Kaifun was just plain unsettling.

Y'know, I really hate this automatic word censoring system. >_<

Those are from the "Swimsuit Spectacular" issue of the Robotech II: the Sentinels comic books published under Eternity/Malibu. It's a pretty good example of what the character designs were like for the Sentinels comics... the Waltrips clearly didn't have a clue what a normal human body looks like, and weren't too comfortable drawing normally-proportioned people either... so as a result everyone is ultra-buff most of the time, and the women have absurd, almost Leifeld-esque proportions. Of course, since they were also building on the Sentinels character designs, everyone looks like a goddamn idiot too. (Remember, these are the same people who, in an effort to make Robotech a bit more "mature", turned Minmei into a gutter skank, among other things)

MY EYES! THEY BURN!

No kidding... there's a lot of good vocal work on those albums.

The pilot's name was Chlore... Milia's supposed rival. After watching the trailer, I'm kind of interested in seeing the final product... especially since it's actually got Macross II content in it. I didn't go back and read the last few pages, but I saw they've got at the very least a VF-2SS and a Gigamesh in there. This might be the game that finally convinces me the PSP is worth buying.

Yes, much of it was a Star Trek ripoff without shame (but hey, this is Carl Macek's planned magnum opus we're talking about... you expected originality?), and its death is actually celebrated by much of the Robotech fanbase as a very fortunate thing, but there are still some of those strange Robotech fans with completely alien concepts of quality and entertainment who thought Sentinels deserved to be finished... Well, considering the blind faith they get from what remains of their core fanbase, one could easily assume they've decided their die-hard fans have the mental maturity of a child who desperately wants to believe in Santa Claus, and are acting accordingly.

Well, it IS a good target... but I'd put that under the umbrella of "commentary on Robotech news, current events, and the at-best questionable business ethnics and practices of Harmony Gold". After all, a lot of those "nasty things" we say here are honest opinions about Harmony Gold's questionable business practices, their increasingly pathetic attempts to pass off recycled content as original material (RTSC), and their general mistreatment of Macross and Robotech fans.

Keep up like that and you'll get a bad case of athlete's tongue from having your foot in your mouth all day. Had you bothered to read any of it, you'd see that this thread's primary purpose was/is uncovering and consolidating the hard facts of the legal situation surrounding the original Macross TV series, including what the rights of Harmony Gold are, and how those limitations affect the future of the Robotech franchise. Of course, since the facts are so well-established, the only people who really want to debate them anymore are "problem children" like MEMO1DOMINION... the Robotech lunatic fringe who find the fact that Harmony Gold cannot use everything in Robotech however they see fit so very offensive that they attack those who dare point that out, troll this thread with increasingly asinine attempts to deny the irrefutable evidence, and generally give the Robotech fandom a bad even worse name than it already has. As the facts have already been established, and are very well explained and documented, this thread's primary purpose turned mainly to commentary on informing newbies, and commentary on Robotech news, current events, and the at-best questionable business ethnics and practices of Harmony Gold. Given that Harmony Gold's public relations dept. is a bad joke, all the bad press most of their actions get, and the fact that they've left management of their fanbase in the hands of the very people who I referred to in the previous paragraph... people who are so deep in denial they no longer know what reality is anymore. Unless that changes, this thread will probably run forever.

Maybe MEMO will?

That the GBP-1 was initially only compatible with the VF-1J is not a "dumb assumption", VF5SS, it's the official line on the matter as far as the alternate universe goes. The writers at B-Club got the information directly from the production staff. The only problem here is in the logic of your objections, as I will now illustrate: 1.) The alternate universe continuity leading up to Macross II: Lovers Again uses DYRL, not the TV series, as the "correct" depiction of Space War 1. 2.) The toys and models you're referencing were made for the TV series, not DYRL. Furthermore, the article does say that the other variants were later refitted for compatibility with the GBP-1 armor, as I did point out. 3.) The Macross: Do You Remember Love? video game was released five years after Macross II concluded, well after Shoji Kawamori had placed Macross II and its prequels on "alternate universe" status. So, rationally, the game reflects the "movie in the universe" dramatization filmed in 2031, not the authentic events and setting of the war used for the alternate universe. Essentially, your assumption that someone at B-Club made a "pretty dumb assumption" because they weren't "doing their homework" is based entirely on irrelevant material that you assumed was relevant because you didn't do your homework. Ironic, no? Probably just an improvised repair... they WERE operating for an extended period without resupply.

"Might" is definitely the right word, though Harmony Gold certainly wants to play it off like it's a certainty. From the sound of things, the movie's already stuck in development hell, and they don't even have a script for it yet. They seem to be much more concerned with stirring up hype by making a big to-do out of every minor addition to the pre-production staff (like no-talent hacks Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, and Tom Rob Smith), and hushing up every departure (like Chuck Rovin). Between that and the brouhaha over the movie being a "reimagining" that will in all likelihood be "Robotech" in name only (due to their inability to use Macross designs), there's really nothing worth talking about. Personally, I'm betting it gets the axe before it even makes it to production.

In the alternate universe continuity leading up to Macross II: Lovers Again, for which DYRL is the "correct" version of Space War 1, your question does have a definitive answer... and that answer is "Yes". According to the VF History article in B-Club 79, which outlines the history of VF technology in what is now the alternate universe continuity, and several other sources, the GBP-1 armor system was initially only compatible with the VF-1J. At some unspecified point after the war, the other variants were all refitted to be able to equip the GBP-1 armor. In the main Macross continuity, where DYRL is a "movie within the universe", your guess is as good as mine. That's an animation mistake. The developers of Robotech: Battlecry turned that mistake into a "new" design when they were fleshing out the game, and Harmony Gold later canonized it for Robotech. It should not be confused with the VF-1R from Macross's alternate universe continuity, which is also known as the Valkyrie Kai. The "VF-1R" was created for the canon Macross II prequel game Macross 2036: the Neld Fleet Incident. The VF-1R isn't a single variant, but rather an evolutionary upgrade to the whole VF-1 platform to improve its capabilities and optimize it for combat in space. It comes in three variants... the VF-1AR, VF-1JR, and VF-1SR, all of which are equipped with the semi-permanent SP-II super parts. Notable pilots include Komilia Maria Jenius.

Nah, you've missed the whole purpose of their monitoring activities... it's so they can actively seek out those members who are expressing dangerous ideas that might lead to them running the franchise better, producing better products, and having better customer service, and quash them so they can't express those views on Robotech.com. Apparently Steve Yun and Kevin McKeever do.

That's complete and utter horsecrap. He's just lazy. I know plenty of guys with large hands who have no problems typing normally, even on teeny little netbooks. He types all in caps for the same reason he never spellchecks what he writes... he's lazy. He got banned from Robotech.com by MEMO here for trying to pick a fight with me, some other users, and RobotechX administrator SIGHUP. MEMO deleted his post though. He got banned from RobotechX.com by SIGHUP here, also for trying to derail the thread in order to start a flame-war.

Yeah, it's pretty much inevitable that those three threads'll be closed down sooner rather than later. As long as Steve leaves things in the hands of MEMO1DOMINION and Maverick_LSC, it's going to be impossible to have a rational discussion about the legalities, let alone a serious one. I'm frankly amazed that yoshii has lasted this long, since all he does is bitch about how if they don't use the original Macross designs it'll be "Robot Tech", not Robotech. It probably won't be long until Maverick_LSC starts to see some other member who actually knows what they're talking about as a threat to his credibility, and that person'll get the boot too. Nah, it'd only be like that if we had some easy way to tell when they were getting ready to give us the boot for expressing views that make them uncomfortable. Steve and co. seem to have adopted a very Stalinist viewpoint of managing the fanbase... that the source of all problems is man, and that eliminating the problem at its source is the most efficient way to do things... "no man, no problem" as that line of reasoning goes. It looks like, despite being banned, HappyPenguins's website (which openly criticizes Harmony Gold) is still under surveillance by someone at Harmony Gold. There're oddly frequent hits from the same computer in LA.

Right around the time Macross Chronicle #21 came out, if memory serves. He'd certainly be easier to ignore, wouldn't he?

It would probably be a mistake to say that he "runs" RobotechX at all... he might pay the hosting bill, but the actual administrative work is done by someone else. For all practical purposes, MEMO's just an incredibly obnoxious global moderator. Exactly the same as he is on Robotech.com. Though, just like on Robotech.com, he desperately wants to stop people from pointing out that Harmony Gold doesn't own the intellectual property rights to Macross, and thus cannot use Macross designs in future cinematic works. While he might deny it, the general assessment of his behavior among those Robotech who have to put up with him is that he's hoping that if he keeps this up Harmony Gold'll offer him a job. Oh, they'd still be BAD, they'd just be easier to read. Y'know, I offered to pay him if he'd take care of a few important Macross II sheets in Macross Chronicle for me, since he translates faster than I do, but he shot me down...

It seems like whenever I start to think there's no reason for this thread to continue, someone posts something like this and I bust out laughing. This may very well be the most accurate and succinct summary of the situation with MEMO that anyone has ever written. Really, at this point I'm not even trying to prove him wrong anymore... I'm just doing it for the lulz. More often than not, MEMO's knee-jerk attempts to prove me wrong are unintentionally hilarious circular arguments and the sort of moon logic that would lead one to conclude that 2+2 equals "fish". I don't think he realizes it, but in the course of this long-running debate about Macross rights, MEMO has so thoroughly destroyed his own credibility that I very much doubt there's anyone left who takes him seriously. He's reached a level of respectability normally reserved for cranks and the sort of conspiracy theorists who wear tinfoil hats. Now that his last great supporter, Pizza the Hutt, has been banned on Robotech.com and has achieved the distinction of being the first person to ever be banned from RobotechX, I wonder if he'll finally shut up.

I like my answer better... this thread IS about Robotech after all...